Hong Kong faces brain drain of highly skilled mainland Chinese arrivals, Baptist University study warns
- Government must work to retain talent arriving from the mainland which is increasingly highly educated and well paid, researchers say
- Social workers report many mainland migrants encounter discrimination in the city, urge officials to run integration programmes
New arrivals to Hong Kong from mainland China are increasingly well educated and highly paid, but many will choose to leave within five years in a damaging economic trend for the city, according to a new study.
Researchers from the Baptist University analysis published on Wednesday urged the Hong Kong government to stop the brain drain of skilled mainland arrivals, while social workers said many of the newcomers encountered discrimination and called on officials to do more to help them integrate in the community.
The research revealed a substantial increase in the socio-economic status of mainland migrants since 2001, and also found that Hong Kong’s population of under-20s would have shrunk by a quarter without the past two decades of inbound flow from over the border.
“It is a problem when many of these highly educated people do not stay long in Hong Kong,” said Professor Cheng Yuk-shing, who led the research.
Commissioned by the new migrants’ rights group, Society for Community Organisation, the research found it was no longer the case that mainland residents settling in Hong Kong were unskilled and reliant on public support when they arrived.
